Extensions, matias cattaneo, nicolas idrobo, and roc. Economics of education program, labor studies program this paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression discontinuity rd designs for empirical researchers. In the srd design the assignment w i is a deterministic function of one of the. With the exception of a few unpublished theoretical. A guide to practice guido imbens and thomas lemieux nber working paper no. Regression discontinuity rd designs were initially introduced by thistlethwaite and campbell 1960 as a way of estimating treatment effects in a nonexperimental setting where treatment is. Regression discontinuity designs in economics this paper from the journal of economic literature outlines the main principles and uses of regression discontinuity rd designs in research. Regression discontinuity rd designs are increasingly used by researchers to obtain unbiased estimates of the effects of educationrelated interventions. Published in volume 48, issue 2, pages 2855 of journal of economic literature, june 2010, abstract. There has been a growing use of regression discontinuity design rdd, introduced by thistlewaite and campbell 1960, in evaluating impacts of development programs. Joe wadding presented this 50minute talk at the university of kentucky on regression discontinuity, the first presentation in the fall 2017 applied quantitative and.
Regression discontinuity designs use observational data to examine treatment efficacy. Testing identifying assumptions in fuzzy regression. Wwc standards for regression discontinuity designs. Akramov ifpri, washington, dc, usa training course on applied econometric analysis.
It presents the basic theory behind the research design, details when rd is likely to be valid or invalid given economic incentives. A history of the regression discontinuity design in psychology, statistics and economics. Inference in regression discontinuity designs with a. View or download all content the institution has subscribed to. Together, these commands are useful when devising new experiments or surveys in regressiondiscontinuity designs, which will later. May 04, 2017 the increasing popularity of regression discontinuity methods for causal inference in observational studies has led to a proliferation of different estimating strategies, most of which involve first fitting nonparametric regression models on both sides of a treatment assignment boundary and then reporting plug in estimates for the effect of interest. Regression discontinuity rd analysis is a rigorous nonexperimental1 approach that can be. C1,h0,i0,j0 abstract this paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression discontinuity rd designs for empirical researchers. This article uses the example of statin prescription in primary care to explain the concept of the method and how it can be used randomised controlled trials are, in most scenarios, the best scientific method for evaluating the efficacy of treatment. Regression discontinuity designs in economics by david lee. Lee princeton university and nber thomas lemieux university of british columbia and nber may 20 abstract this chapter provides an overview of regression discontinuity rd designs for social science researchers. Joe journal of econometrics the regression discontinuity design. Theory and applications advances in econometrics book 38. This paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression discontinuity rd designs for empirical resear.
Regression discontinuity designs in economics princeton university. Hundreds of recent applied articles have used rd, and in many cases frd designs. Regression discontinuity designs in economics princeton. Economics of education, labor studies this paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression discontinuity rd designs for empirical researchers. Cattaneo is a professor of economics and a professor of statistics at the university of michigan. Regression discontinuity design rdd is a quasiexperimental evaluation option that measures the impact of an intervention, or treatment, by applying a treatment assignment mechanism based on a continuous eligibility index which is a variable with a continuous distribution. Regression discontinuity designs in economics david s. The regression discontinuity rd design is one of the most popular and credible research designs for program evaluation and causal inference. Regression discontinuity rd designs have enjoyed a renaissance within economics in recent years, with wide application particularly in studies of primary and secondary education. This study uses monte carlo simulations to demonstrate that regression. Concepts are discussed using examples drawn from the growing body of empirical research using rd. A practical introduction to regression discontinuity designs. Lee and thomas lemieux this paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression discontinuity rd designs for empirical researchers.
Regression discontinuity designs in social sciences 1 david s. Regression discontinuity design in stata part 1 stata. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading regression discontinuity designs. These designs were first introduced in the evaluation. Discontinuity design relative to an otherwise comparable randomized. The regression discontinuity design rdd can be used to estimate the impact of an. This paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression. In regression discontinuity rd designs for evaluating causal effects of interventions, assignment to a treatment is determined at least partly by the value of an observed covariate lying on either side of a fixed threshold. Theory and applications advances in econometrics book 38 kindle edition by cattaneo, matias d. Rddtools is a new r package under development, designed to offer a set of tools to run all the steps required for a regression discontinuity design rdd analysis, from primary data visualisation to discontinuity estimation, sensitivity and placebo testing. The regression discontinuity design rdd is a quasiexperimental design that estimates the causal effect of a treatment when its assignment is defined by a threshold value for a continuous. Regression discontinuity designs in social sciences1. Regression discontinuity design in economics request pdf. A correction for regression discontinuity designs with.
These designs are applicable when a continuous scoring rule is used to assign the intervention to study units. This volume 38 of advances in econometrics collects twelve innovative and thoughtprovoking contributions to the rd literature, covering a wide range of methodological and practical topics. Testing identifying assumptions in fuzzy regression discontinuity designs yoichi araia yuchin hsub toru kitagawac ismael mourifie d yuanyuan wane abstract. Regression discontinuity rd designs were initially introduced by thistlethwaite and campbell 1960 as a way of estimating treatment effects in a nonexperimental setting where treatment is determined by whether an observed assignment variable also referred to in. Regression discontinuity designs in economics econpapers. We propose an alternative method for estimation and statistical inference in regression discontinuity designs that uses numerical convex optimization to directly obtain the finitesampleminimax linear estimator for the regression discontinuity parameter, subject to bounds on the second derivative of the conditional response function. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Introduction to regression discontinuity designs in economics thomas lemieux, ubc spring course in labor econometrics university of coimbra, march 18 2011. Statistical power for regression discontinuity designs in education. Regression discontinuity rd analysis is a rigorous nonexperimental1 approach that can be used to estimate program impacts in situations in which candidates are selected for treatment based on whether their value for a numeric rating exceeds a designated threshold or cutpoint.
Power calculations for regressiondiscontinuity designs. Regression discontinuity designs in economics assigned to individuals or units with a value of x greater than or equal to a cutoff value c. In addition to econometric essentials, mostly harmless econometrics covers important new extensionsregressiondiscontinuity designs and quantile regressionas well as how to get standard errors right. Regression discontinuity designs using covariates the. Regression discontinuity designs in economics nber. We study regression discontinuity designs when covariates are included in the estimation.
Regression discontinuity rd designs were initially introduced by thistlethwaite and campbell 1960 as a way of estimating treatment effects in a nonexperimental setting where treatment is determined by whether an. To install this package in r, run the following commands. These designs were first introduced in the evaluation literature by thistlewaite and campbell 1960. When the running variable in a regression discontinuity rd design is measured with error, identification of the local average treatment effect of interest will typically fail. Regression discontinuity designs in economics american. Plan of the three lectures on regression discontinuity designs. Introduction to regression discontinuity rd designs rd designs as local randomized experiments and the manipulation problem. Regression discontinuity designs in economics ideasrepec. The increasing popularity of regression discontinuity methods for causal inference in observational studies has led to a proliferation of different estimating strategies, most of which involve first fitting nonparametric regression models on both sides of a treatment assignment boundary and then reporting plugin estimates for the effect of interest. It presents the basic theory behind the research design, details when rd is likely to be valid or invalid given economic incentives, explains why it is considered a quasiexperimental design, and summarizes different ways with their advantages and disadvantages. Regression discontinuity designs with clustered data. A history of the regressiondiscontinuity design in psychology, statistics and economics. The regression discontinuity design theory and applications.
We examine local polynomial estimators that include discrete or continuous covariates in an additive separable way, but without imposing any parametric restrictions on the underlying population regression functions. Together, these commands are useful when devising new experiments or surveys in regression discontinuity designs, which will later be analyzed using modern local polynomial techniques for estimation, inference, and falsification. Economics of education program, labor studies program. We recommend a covariateadjustment approach that retains consistency under intuitive. C14,c21 abstract in regression discontinuity rd designs for evaluating causal effects of interventions, assignment to a treatment is determined at least partly by the value of an observed covariate lying on. Request pdf regression discontinuity design in economics this paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression discontinuity rd designs. This paper provides an introduction and user guide to regression discontinuity rd designs for empirical researchers. It presents the basic theory behind the research design, details when rd is likely to be valid or invalid given economic incentives, explains why it is considered a quasiexperimental design, and summarizes different ways with their advantages and. Recent advances and applications the main reference for the lectures is d. Mostly harmless econometrics by angrist and pischke pdf. Regression discontinuity designs in economics pdf regression discontinuity designs in economics.
The regression discontinuity designtheory and applications. Short course in regression discontinuity designs icpsr summer program in quantitative methods of social research may 2123, 2018. Journal of econometrics 142 2008 615635 regression discontinuity designs. Article pdf available in quantitative economics 92. Regression discontinuity designs in economics better. Regression discontinuity design an overview sciencedirect.
Regression discontinuity designs in healthcare research. In statistics, econometrics, political science, epidemiology, and related disciplines, a regression discontinuity design rdd is a quasiexperimental pretestposttest design that elicits the causal effects of interventions by assigning a cutoff or threshold above or below which an intervention is assigned. A practical guide to regression discontinuity mdrc. In regression discontinuity rd designs for evaluating causal effects of interventions, assignment to a treatment is determined at least partly by the value of. These designs are applicable when a continuous scoring rule is used to assign the intervention to study units for example, school districts, schools, or students. Regression discontinuity designs in economics better evaluation. Optimized inference in regression discontinuity designs, as proposed by imbens and wager 2017. Regression discontinuity designs in social sciences sage. Regression discontinuity design in stata part 1 stata daily. Pdf regression discontinuity designs in healthcare research. Regression discontinuity designs in economics, journal of economic literature, american economic. Statistical power for regression discontinuity designs in. Pdf when does regression discontinuity design work.
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